Ambient music eh? For many it's nothing more than aural wallpaper - functional music designed to be played as part of the background to your life.
Give the music a rhythm track and you've got yourself countless chill out compilations for your dinner parties.
But there is another side to ambient music, the sort of music that places you in it's own self-defined ambient world. Julian Cope talked about this in his book, Krautrocksampler, when reviewing Tangerine Dream's incredible Zeit (an album that feels devoid of all time) - describing it as music that "takes over the room and permeates the whole house....anyone calling in the middle of its playing will never see that room in the same light ever again". In parts, Extant is very much in that camp.
Things that I thought of whilst listening to Extant:
- Eno's On Land album
- Being in the desert in the middle of the night.
- An, as yet, unmade sci-fi horror movie
- Richard D James talking about lucid dreams and the word "lush"
- How can some people make music that is both familiar and yet totally alien? And do it so well.
- Selected Ambient Works Volume 2
- Oneohtrix Point Never
- Drones and melodies
- How can some people make music that is both uplifting and mournful? And do it so well.
- How I wish I had more time in my life to immerse myself in this music.
Oh, and on The Holy Fallout, there's a voice proclaiming “May the blessings of the bomb almighty and the fellowship of the holy fallout descend upon us all. This day and forever more”.
The artworks pretty tasty too - a nice fold out sleeve, as you can see from my dodgy photo. Really, the photos are probably better if you go to their record label, The Geography Trip's website
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